First snow of the winter season

Well, it looks as though winter is here.....and you know what that means....time to hibernate and feel miserable!  Yeah Right!  It's Cross Country time!  A couple inches of snow fell today, so I had my first snow run of the winter season. 

It was an easy 9 miles and I enjoyed every bit of it.  However, I'm sure I won't be enjoying the rest of the running week as temperatures are forecasted to drop to the teens and running surfaces becoming slippery. I hope that I'll be able to get in a speed session tomorrow or Wednesday in preparation for Sunday's cross race (see upcoming races on right side bar).

Nov 22-28

Mon: 9M easy
Tue: 9.4M easy
Wed: 9.4M including 20 x :30 w/ 1' easy
Thu: 9M moderate
Fri: 8.4 easy
Sat: 10M including 2 x 2M Tempo
Sun:  15M long run

Weekly Total:  70 miles on 7 runs/7 days
Good training week. Got in some speed play on Wed and a tempo run of 2 x 2M on Sat. I had planned to do 3 x 2M, but decided to cut it short because I felt like I was working harder than I should to maintain tempo pace, might have been the freezing temps. Long run this morning went very well. Despite freezing temps in the 20s, I was cruising at a comfortable steady pace on rolling terrain.

Inge

As I mentioned in my previous post, I ran the Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills Run) "unofficially." I ran with a bib-number, but with no chip for official timing.  (Does this mean I was a bandit runner?)

On Saturday morning I emailed my Dutch friend Fons and asked him whether there were any good cross-country races in the area for the weekend.  He replied back stating that he had an extra bib-number for the Seven Hills Run in Nijmegen on Sunday.  Our friend Inge decided not to run, so I would be able to use her bib.  However, Fons and I agreed that I should not use the chip that came with the number as it would seem suspicious when it registered in the results (would have been 6th female overall using the chip under Inge's name).  Two years ago I ran this same race using another runner's (Herman) bib-number and chip; however, unlike 2-yrs ago, we were not able to officially transfer the registration because we did not meet the transfer deadline.

The goal going into the race was to beat my time (51:26) from two years ago with the same tactic of going out conservative early on the hills and then picking up the pace as the race progressed.  However, this time around I wanted to cross the 5K mark a few seconds faster, which I did with a 17:17 5K split, 7 seconds faster than in '08.  On the steepest hill at 7K I caught up to Aussie Benita Willis (formerly Johnson) and a few other runners.  My legs felt good, but the breathing started to get heavy and could even feel my pace begin to slow.  This was evident with a positive 2nd 5K split of 17:28 and a slower 10K time (34:45), 12 seconds slower than in '08.  After averaging 3:37/km (5:48 pace) for the 11th and 12th km, which included a couple small hills, I knew that a 15K PR was not within reach.  Ruling out the PR I still made the effort to get under 52 minutes, which I did with a 3:13 last km.  Below is my splits comparison for '08 and '10.  Also, you can view some video clips of me here.

Seven Hills Run Splits

Year	5K	10K	15K
2008	17:24	34:33 (17:09)	51:26 (16:53)
2010	17:17	34:45 (17:28)	51:53 (17:08)

Btw, Leonard Komon of Kenya broke the 15K World Record running 41:13 and smashing the old mark by 16 seconds.  Wow!!!

Nov 15-21

Mon: 8.3M easy
Tue: 9.4M including 10 x 400 (76, 76, 76, 75, 75, 74, 75, 75, 73, 73)
Wed: 10.3M easy
Thu: 8.3M easy
Fri: 7M including 5 x 200 (36's)
Sat: 7.2M easy
Sun:  Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills Run) 15K - 51:53 "Unofficial"; 13M total

Weekly Total:  63.5 miles on 7 runs/7 days
Good week of running, which included an unplanned race today. I "unofficially" ran the Seven Hills Run 15K in Nijmegen today. I'll write about my race and how I was able to get a "bib number" in my next post.

Nov 8-14

Mon: 9.3M easy
Tue: 9.3M easy
Wed: 9M including 4 sets of 2x200 w/ 200 rec + 1x400 w/ 400 rec
Thu: 10M easy
Fri: 8M easy
Sat: 9.4M including 3 x 2',1:30,1',:30 w/ -:30 rec
Sun: 13.7M easy

Weekly Total: 68.7 miles on 7 runs/7 days
It was my first normal week of running following post-marathon recovery. It seems that I haven't lost much of my aerobic fitness during the recovery phase because my easy runs are consistently around 6:55 pace.  Wed and Sat were good workouts to get some of my leg-turnover back. 

4-Week Post-Marathon Recovery

Nov 1-7

Mon: 9.3M easy
Tue: 8M including 10 x 1' hard/easy
Wed: 9.3M easy
Thu: 5.5M very easy
Fri: DNR; 30' bike on spinner
Sat: 10M trail run
Sun: 14.5M steady run w/ last km in 3:40

Weekly Total: 56.3 miles on 6 runs/6 days
Post-marathon recovery complete.

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Oct 25-31

Mon: DNR; biked to/from work.
Tue: AM - 8M easy; PM - 4M very easy
Wed: AM - 7.5M including 10 x 200m w/ 200m rec; PM - 3.5M very easy
Thu: 8M easy
Fri: 9M progression run with miles 7-9 at 6:26 > 6:00 pace
Sat: DNR
Sun: 11.5M easy with last km in 3:28 (5:35 pace)

Weekly Total: 51 miles on 7 runs/5 days
Week 3 post-marathon recovery. Felt good to get in some leg-turnover.
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Oct 18-24

Mon: 5M easy
Tue: 6M easy
Wed: 6.5M including 10 x :30 w/ 1 easy;
Thu: DNR; 30' bike on spinner
Fri: 6M easy
Sat: 8M easy
Sun: 9.5M easy

Weekly Total: 41 mileson 6 runs/6 days
Week 2 post-marathon recovery. Pace for easy runs sort of back to normal.  However, I felt some tenderness in the right shin, same area that was giving me problems the last 2 weeks before the marathon.

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Oct 11-17

Mon: DNR
Tue: DNR
Wed: DNR
Thu: 4M very slow and easy
Fri: 7M easy
Sat: 3M easy
Sun: 6M easy

Weekly Total: 20 miles on 4 runs/4 days
First week post-marathon. Legs sore in the first few days but gone by Thur.  Legs felt heavy during the runs.

Marathon History

Updated marathon results. 

Marathon	Date	Time	Remarks
Marine Corps Marathon	10/26/03	2:53:22	1st marathon
Honolulu Marathon	12/14/03	3:09:38	ran for fun while visiting family in Hawaii
Boston Marathon	4/19/04	2:59:23	85 deg at start; 2nd hottest Boston
Houston Marathon	1/16/05	2:42:14	negative splits: 1:21:11, 1:21:03
Marine Corps Marathon	10/30/05	2:41:15	splits: 1:20:16, 1:20:59
Austin Marathon	2/19/06	2:38:16	negative splits: 1:19:17, 1:18:59
Rocket City Marathon	12/09/06	2:39:21	splits: 1:18:29, 1:20:52
Grandmas Marathon	06/21/08	2:54:08	came off an 8-wk ITBS and 4-5 wks of easy running
Amsterdam Marathon	10/19/08	2:35:37	new PR; splits: 1:17:34, 1:18:03
Hamburg Marathon	04/26/09	2:34:33	splits: 1:17:16, 1:17:17
Berlin Marathon	09/20/09	2:34:06	new PR; splits: 1:16:20, 1:17:46
Marine Corps Marathon	10/25/09	2:41:33	splits: 1:17:16, 1:24:17; 2nd marathon in 5 wks & 4th in a yr's period (Oct 08-09)
Rotterdam Marathon	04/11/10	2:35:46	splits: 1:17:04, 1:18:42
Munich Marathon	10/10/10	2:33:50	splits: 1:16:46, 1:17:04
Rotterdam Marathon	4/10/11	2:35:26	splits: 1:16:32, 1:18:54
Boston Marathon	4/16/12	2:36:35	negative splits: 1:18:29, 1:18:06